A UK-headquartered investor is closing in on the purchase of the Jervis Shopping Centre in Dublin city centre for about €115 million.
Pradera, a retail property investment and fund management specialist active across Europe, the UK and Middle East, has been selected as preferred bidder for the scheme.
While the €115 million Pradera has offered to pay for the centre is less than the €120 million price that was guided by joint agents Eastdil Secured and Savills when they put it up for sale in March, it was enough to see off competing second-round bids from US investor Starwood and British billionaire Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Interestingly, the proposed €115 million sale price is considerably more than the offers submitted in the first round of the sale process by other, predominantly Irish investors that included the Comer Group, Lugus Capital, and former Davy Real Estate chief executive David Goddard’s Lanthorn.
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None of these parties is understood to have tabled an offer in excess of €100 million for the scheme.
[ Dublin’s Jervis Shopping Centre to be put up for sale with €120m price tagOpens in new window ]
Developed in the early 1990s on the site of the former Jervis Street Hospital by Padraig Drayne, Paddy McKillen and Paschal Taggart, Jervis Shopping Centre extends to more than 35,766sq m (385,000 sq ft) and has more than 90 retail units, including a foodcourt, across two floors supplemented by mezzanine floors.
The centre’s tenant line-up features national and international retailers including Tesco, JD Sports, Boots, Timberland, Bershka, Schuh, Sunglass Hut, Currys, Diesel, Rituals, KFC, Burger King and Butler’s Chocolate Cafe.
While the centre had counted Next among its occupiers for more than 20 years, the UK fashion retailer relocated to a new flagship premises nearby at 7-9 Henry Street in late 2018.
More recently, the Jervis Shopping Centre suffered a blow with the decision by New Look to exit the Irish market. The UK discount fashion retailer is understood to have been paying about €2 million a year in rent for its Jervis store which, at 3,716sq m (40,000sq ft), was the largest in its chain of more than 1,000 outlets worldwide.
In 2017, AIB Real Estate Finance provided a €155 million loan to refinance the Jervis Shopping Centre. The seven-year loan was made available to a company controlled by Mr Drayne and Mr McKillen.
